After the maritime flavoured ‘Galeere’, Geïst changed its name out of necessity in Eïs and released three years ago the icy ‘Wetterkreuz’. But that Wetterkreuz era has come to an end, since early October the band around mastermind Alboin comes up with ‘Bannstein’. This time the intense – mostly mid-paced – black metal with German lyrics is inspired by the fatalistic nature of mankind and the impossibility to avoid tragedies. This is a very pessimistic feature, transferred into five lengthy compositions with multidimensional aura.

Eïs has always put loads of atmosphere in his long blackened compositions. The menacing spoken beginning of ‘Ein Letztes Menetekel’ passes into sharp guitar sounds, but soon it cuts loose with raucous yet epic vocals of Alboin. Even though vocals are rough, they remain intelligible and the front man uses different timbres of his rough throat. The band with drummer Marlek, guitarist Abarus and keyboardist Satyrus.S plays ultra tight and inserts any fervent accelerations. ‘Im Noktuarium’ has a kind of melancholy, with soaring synthesizers and sure-fire guitar ornaments. The epic character is invigorated by them heavy mid-paced passages. ‘Über Den Bannstein’ kicks off fast and furious, but the grimness is halfway turned into a dream-like fragment on acoustic guitars. That’s how they build up tension in a wonderful manner between thoughtful moments and rigorous fury.

These salient features of the band are also masterly used in the introvert starting ‘Fern Von Jarichs Gärten’ which is conjuring with its spoken parts and baroque sound. The rather contemplative occluding track ‘Im Schoss Der Welken Blätter’ impresses us with cello and acoustic guitars, it reminded us of Empyrium for a moment. By the way, this album is once again recorded with Markus Stock as producer in Klangschmiede Studio E and it sounds perfectly! The broad outburst with vocals is very epic and we can enjoy top notch black metal with an undercurrent of gloomy melancholy. Momentous introvert parts are always intermittent with black metal heaviness. That’s why Eïs has given us a next piece of work we can dive into in order to discover all refined details step by step. Superior! As all releases of Prophecy Productions, the artbook is worth purchasing, with interpretations of the songs by other eminent vocalists in the scène. More details about that can be read in our interview with Alboin.